"Hi!" whispered Rudolph to Kitty, "didn't that fellow hit hard,
though?--he'll beat I guess."

A moment more and the council was ended. One of the Indians approached
the children and daubed their faces with black; it was a fatal sign, for
it proved that the vote had been against them--Rudolph and Kitty were to
be put to death!




VI.

KA-TE-QUA.


All that night, and for many days afterward, Tom lay in a burning fever,
quite unconscious of what was passing around him.

Meanwhile, strange to say, Rudolph and Kitty were treated almost with
kindness. They were well fed, and were given the softest deer-skins to
lie upon at night. Finding themselves unharmed as the hours went on, the
little creatures became more confident, and finally resumed their
natural playfulness.

Kitty was never weary of the bright beads and ornaments of the Indian
maidens, and Rudolph found great delight in shooting with the bows and
arrows of the _papooses_ or children, who, in turn, were wonderfully
amused at the bad shots of the little pale-face. Now and then, to be